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Sunday Essay by Ajith Samaranayake

In Los Angeles, California, the city of dreams and fables, it was still Friday night and Deeptha Leelaratne's body might have been lying in a funeral home. However in Mt. Lavinia, it was already Saturday morning when a small but select band of his friends and colleagues of the former Lankadeepa, who had been made bereft by the news of his sudden death assembled at the Sri Dharmapalaramaya to invoke merit on him.

Mt. Lavinia was important since it was there that Deeptha had started his career in journalism as Mt. Lavinia correspondent. It was a poignant moment since as Upali Rupasinghe, the Lake House correspondent in India, recalled so many things had happened between then and now and the lives of so many people had gone in so many directions. Upali said that setting out from Kandy that morning he had looked at his wedding picture and broken into tears because Deeptha had been his bestman. The groomsman had been Anton Alwis, who was one of the trusted lieutenants of the late President Premadasa.

It was a moment of sorrow but also of some sense of happiness because old friends and colleagues had met and there were reminiscences of the giants of the past such as the legendary founder editor of the Lankadeepa, D. B. Dhanapala, T. B. Peramunetilleke who exposed the conspiracy behind the assassination of the late prime minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Ratnadeshapriya Senanayake who in a famous phase during prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike's government in 1970 dubbed the late president J. R. Jayewardene as the, "Mahanayake of the private sector", Prins Gunasekara, the first chief sub-editor of the Lankadeepa and many others.

Eva Ranaweera, former editor of the Vanitha Viththi and one of the most underrated Sinhala novelists, recalled how Deeptha and his colleague Walter Jayawardena had been trail blazers in introducing scientific journalism to the newly emergent Sinhala readership. Those were the heavy days of the battle between the two super powers to conquer the moon and Deeptha carved a permanent niche for himself in the mythology of Sri Lankan journalism by establishing a special relationship with Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma, the eminent Sri Lankan scientist who was then attached to the National Aeronautical and Space Authority of the USA.

So Deeptha who began life from Mt. Lavinia went to Los Angeles, California where he had his own Sinhala newspaper and radio station in collaboration with his wife Haseena. Tributes were also paid to the role that he played in fostering Sri Lanka's image in the USA and one of the speakers even described him as Sri Lanka's unofficial ambassador to the USA. However it had been his dream to return to the country very soon and play a role in fostering a new generation of bi-lingual journalists. But then these are not matters for mere mortals to decide.

Among those who also paid their tributes were Janadasa Pieris, the former Chairman of Lake House and yesterday's ceremony which was arranged at very short notice was organised by Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe and Sunil Daya Alwis.

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